Of Bees and War
by Gracious Anne
Summary: The details of a story are important but sometimes all you need is one thought to carry it through. One sentence stories where Sherlock and John deal with coming to the end of their scene in the world's stage, battle with Moriarty, and become legends.
1. Chapter 1

#01 – Walking

John huffs at Sherlock, his hands digging into the depths of his pockets when he walks away from 221b for the last time, while Sherlock fiddles with the lock on the door, his key "stuck." (catch up you old coot, he thinks).

#02 – Waltz

Their heads fill with the sober droning of bees, the air sweet and humid, the sunlight pinking the backs of their necks, and they sway to the beat of it, their last waltz not played in any symphony hall.

#03 – Wishes

Where do you suppose Moriarty is now? says Sherlock, absently plucking the gray hairs behind his ears when he isn't staring the newspaper headlines while John reads the newspaper (slowly, so slowly).

#04 – Wonder

Sherlock never grows tired until 3 a.m., that unholy hour, and John can't help but wait up with him, if only to finally see those eyes cloud with drowsiness and his expression falter and take on one of puzzlement, as if his body should never decay, or tire and he was just getting to the good long heat of the investigation.

#05 – Worry

What will happen to London after we've gone you think? Sherlock wonders.

#06 – Whimsy

Why bees? John asks once, and to which Sherlock replies: "Why not?" his lips curled.

#07 - Waste/Wasteland

His grief is like an aftershock, quiet but all the more deadly, and Sherlock just wishes he could take every wrong word he ever said as he holds Mycroft's hand for the last time.

#08 - Whiskey and rum

"have you ever mixed the two?" asks Sherlock, handing over a glass, and John suddenly doesn't want any, thank you very much.

#09 – War

The scars never disappear, and neither does the nightmare, but the running—in streets, up hills—the mud getting on his boots, takes his breath away, and that helps, a little.

#10 – Weddings

"Who is she then?" John asks, still giggling, but the reply never comes, (verbally anyway) it's just a horrible swift kick to his left shin which provokes a scuffle until Mycroft barges in.

#11 – Birthday

"Are you going to put hat on it every time?" asks John, staring at the skull wearing the most ridiculous party favor hat ever conceived, and for once John thinks Sherlock may have developed a sense of humor.

#12 – Blessing

Mrs. Hudson gives them tea, after a while.

#13 – Bias

"I'm not like you," said Sherlock, spitting out blood next to Moriarty's shoes.

#14 – Burning

The fire brigade was never in a hurry to get to 221b until John said something about chemicals and the microwave, which had just dinged.

#15 – Breathing

It was never easy waking up these days in the hospital, his stomach pumped, his arms aching and John sitting in chair next by his bedside like a schoolboy, knees tucked under his chin, and sometimes Sherlock wants it all to stop.

#16 – Breaking

There's too many bones, John thought, looking down at the mass grave, shivering not at anything to do with the weather but for the reason that Sherlock is enjoying himself far too much today, and that terrifies him.

#17 – Belief

John Watson would be there, in the kitchen in the morning, Sherlock thought, and let himself smile at a thought that had all the logical possibilities of one to a million of ever happening, but he tucked that pessimistic feeling back in the corner of his mind.

#18 – Balloon

"Hot air, Anderson. Hot Air," replied Dr. John Watson and Sherlock grinned as a big as Cheshire cat behind his back.

#19 – Balcony

"As your doctor I'd advise you to stop that," John said to the back of a tall man, who turning around was not Sherlock Holmes, and definitely the maudlin outline of Moriarty, who dropped his cigarette over the side.

#20 – Bane

"Which one?" Mycroft asked, slyly and John knew he was in for a heck of morning briefing, and wished he wasn't basically Sherlock's bodyguard, which Sherlock resented and John hated.

#21 – Quiet

Then the bomb went off and the whole world was sparks of light, muddled as the northern lights Sherlock saw once in Kiev and John's hands are too cold, too cold and then firmer than iron.

#22 – Quirks

Sherlock wants to punch John Watson in the face, because he's tired, because he wants quiet, because John's married now and Sherlock hates the woman, and because John is right, actually _right_, this time.

#23 – Question

"Tell me a riddle, Sherlock," Moriarty said, "if you know any."

#24 – Quarrel

"They wouldn't have died if you hadn't waited," said John, his hands balled into fists, watching Sherlock's silent retort pass over his face, _but they wouldn't have lived any better, _and for a while he can't stand to look at Sherlock Holmes.

#25 – Jump

John should have jumped into the water after Sherlock, but his legs wouldn't work, and the falls were too far away, or so all his nightmares go these days—falling, drowning on dry land as his friend dies amidst the rocks, his body broken by gravity-his first friend, his final foe.

#26 – Quitting

It's John in the hospital, not tending his own wounds but lying there, waiting to be cut open like a living cadaver, feverish in his dreams, that makes Sherlock think he's coming to the end.

#27 – Jester

Moriarty smiles, bouncing on the balls of his feet, gleeful, and John thinks they are all pawns in this game of cat and mouse, and pulls the trigger, the bullet swinging too wide, but he doesn't care, and gives Moriarty a fantastic smile.

#28 – Jousting

Sherlock's constant fiddling in the next room with a few chemicals, Mycroft's constant checking in, or wanting to "chat" about politics and plans that he can't really reveal, and John waits for Sherlock to blow up the flat with Mycroft in it, just for spite.

#29 – Jewel

"Sherlock," John starts to say, a thought dawning on him, as he watched Sherlock pace the room, double-time, but he clamps his mouth tight, and just watches Sherlock's right hand grasp the crown jewel in his pocket.

#30 – Smirk

Mrs. Hudson smirks at Sarah a moment before offering John Watson (that sly devil) more tea, and Sherlock, too busy with affairs of state and country to notice Sarah's slight gain in weight and John's tender looks.


	2. Chapter 2

#31 – Sorrow

Sherlock didn't mind dying, not really, he just wish he could have waited a while longer until John… until John…

#32 – Justice

It's a bit of sun that finally stills Sherlock in the end, a quiet stroke, after the sun had finally conquered its most constant observer.

#33 – Stupidity

"John, what have I told you about jam preservatives?"

#34 – Serenade

"There is nothing like the theatre," Sherlock says, hands cupped into a form of contemplative prayer, watching the shadowy figures walk precariously across the high beams of the ceiling, a cattish grin growing in the corners of Sherlock's mouth, the music playing ironically melancholy.

#35 – Sarcasm

"But Sherlock she's dead," says Anderson, horrified, "" but not before Sherlock puts on his best blank expression, and says "oh, is she?"

#36 – Sordid

"No more heads in the fridge Sherlock," John said after finding a particularly nasty example of Sherlock's experiments gone wrong, and Sherlock retaliates with a few human hearts the next day.

#37 – Soliloquy

"Were you expecting a speech, Sherlock?" says Moriarty, watching his very captive, very bruised, but not altogether broken audience (not yet, not yet), and waits for a reply that never comes, and Moriarty rambles on, his victory surely secured.

#38 – Sojourn

"Japan?" asks John, the word rather foreign but altogether wonderful on his tongue, and Sherlock simply nods, and John thinks suddenly there might be mountains and climbing involved, and sighs, but only for the amount of tea he will surely have to drink during client meetings.

#39 – Ring

Sherlock jumps at the sound of the pink mobile, that device ringing at him, and hopes (wretched emotion) that for once, it isn't someone he knows, that it isn't someone he loves.

#40-Hero

He hated the word, almost just as much as the skull on the mantelpiece, and the bloodied scarf he buried under the floorboards.


	3. Chapter 3

#40 – Solitary

"It's like a game of chess", this thing with Moriarty as Sherlock had once tried to explain to Lestrade after they found the warehouse, the cocaine, and the birthday cake, "except more like Chinese checkers and a bit of Poker," he had finished, frowning at the still burning, dripping candles on the cake.

#41 – Nowhere

John wishes they had a different address (sometimes) because it would be easier to hide in a closet in the library then in Sherlock's at the moment, and Sherlock has been stepping and re-stepping on his toes for the past five minutes.

#42 – Neutral

Sherlock thinks his brother is passive, Switzerland, the very last resort, but he often doesn't see things just in front of him that happen to be cadavers.

#43 – Nuance

John can't seem to get the vision of Sherlock's smile out of his mind, nor Moriarty's twisted frown: it is these things that keep him awake, because he still doesn't know this subtle language of cloak and dagger.

#45 – Virtuous

Molly is never noticed, never not polite, and perhaps that is why she kills him in the end with her bare hands: so that she might be noticed, for once.

#46 – Victory

Sherlock thought it would taste sweeter than this, in the dark and cold as they bag the bodies up and the blood is washed away.

#47 – Defeat

"They will never really die, those two," says Lestrade with a small smile.


End file.
